Tuesday, 23 May 2017

One of the nice things about the Indiestad pass is that you will go see bands that you otherwise would probably let go by. Just one song or a description will be enough to decide to go see a show. And so I decided to go see Alex Cameron, because I saw his video for 'Taking Care Of Business' and the description mentioned the dark atmosphere of David Lynch movies.

So on this Sunday night I find myself in the small Cinetol venue. The Australian musician Cameron brought three friends with him that form a curious band. A sax player, a bass player and a drum player with a Rototom addiction. Especially that last part should have given it away, that tonight we were going back to the eighties, and not the finest moments of that decade.

Because Cameron's music is far away from a dark David Lynch style, but closer to cheesy eighties B-movies. The sweet sax melodies don't really help. Cameron himself is crooning his ass off around stage, running his hands through his hair every other second or so, staring into the distance with a fake dreamy look in his eyes. It is clear it is an act he's playing with a lot of tongue in cheek, but it doesn't make his music any better, or I'm simply not getting it. In between the songs he is chatting away, mocking himself, joking about his music, telling that even his manager advised him not to release his album Jumping The Shark.

I can see why, but it's a well chosen title for his music, because he definitely put too much cheese on it. The light pop songs aren't really killers, sound a lot like each other and seem to go nowhere. Except when the band plays 'Taking Care Of Business', where dark synths sound with baritone vocals, drawing inspiration from fellow Aussie Nick Cave and this time actually bringing that David Lynch vibe. But it's the only highlight of an otherwise pale show, where his act of a failed entertainer can not win it from the mediocre music. He should simply write better songs that are at least as good as that one highlight.